Everton 1 Chelsea 0: Massive win maintains Blues lifeline

Everton hung on for a big home win as the Toffees’ gave themselves a crucial lifeline in their battle to avoid the drop by beating Chelsea one nil at Goodison Park yesterday.

This was a massive victory for Everton in the context of the weekend’s results, which had seen Burnley win at Watford with the Blues’ having slipped into the bottom three.

It was also the second consecutive win at the Grand Old Lady against so-called ‘big clubs’ after the previous defeat of Manchester United.

Both were one goal wins and as against United, Everton deserved their win in the end displaying great determination and desire in holding onto a lead, something this team has struggled to do all season long.

There has been regular and well-deserved criticism of this team that they lack the will and frankly, it seems at times the professionalism and even the self-respect, to work hard enough and put in the sort of focused, battling efforts necessary to get out of the dire situation they are in.

There have been positive signs that this is changing under Frank Lampard. The past few matches have seen real improvement in this respect even if the overall quality of football has still been variable. The question remains, is it too little, too late?

We obviously have to hope not but in this developing relegation fight their fate is now potentially out of Everton’s hands with Burnley’s great form over the last few weeks having given them a real chance of surviving.

However, the remaining home games were always course crucial and if the Blues’ could win all of them with just Crystal Palace and Brentford to come to Goodison, then they will have a great chance of staying up.

They have taken six points from two sides that many wouldn’t have expected them to beat and kept a clean sheet in both games.

Ironically, I always feel more confident this team will turn up when they play the better sides at home. As they did for example against Manchester City, when Everton certainly did enough to get at least a point and should have had the chance to do so but for the terrible officiating.

Returning to yesterday’s match, for the second home game running, Jordan Pickford was in sublime form in goal pulling off some fantastic saves against quality opposition to keep another precious clean sheet.

The England keeper has had plenty of critics during his time on Merseyside, me among them from time to time.

But, this season and especially in recent weeks as the Toffees’ fight for survival has become ever more frantic, he has been performing spectacularly and consistantly well.

Yesterday he was simply unbeatable between the sticks and produced another man-of-the-match performance for his club.

Even if Everton do manage to stay up I think they will have a fight on their hands to keep him in the summer as I fully expect other Premier League clubs to be keen on signing him.

Another player who has played a big part in the improvement in recent performances is centre-back Yerry Mina.

The Colombian’s return from an injury that looked as though it might keep him out for the rest of the season, has been very well timed.

He marshalled the Toffees’ defensive efforts well again yesterday showed leadership and the big defender will be a player who’s return could be a decisive factor.

The other player who gets a special mention is Richarlison. The Brazilian scored the winning goal and it was a consequence of his determination and work ethic as he was pressing and harrying the Chelsea defence. More of that is required.

He’s another high-profile player who may not be wearing royal blues when next season kicks off even if Everton are still in the Premier League.

Those though are questions for another time. This victory was huge and keeps alive hope that the Blues’ can escape the nightmare scenario of relegation but they will have to keep replicating these sorts of efforts for the rest of the season of the club are to survive.